Fukushima, here we come!

Visiting Fukushima has become my Spring routine for 8 years now. After a long flight of 9 and a half hours from Vancouver, I arrived in Narita Airport yesterday. Here one can witness a true example of Japanese speed and efficiency of organizing crowds and chaos into an order. They definitely have an art form of doing this, and they do that very quickly. Several hundreds of people from a few planes that landed around the same time flooded into the immigration lines and then these people were quickly "processed" by the airport immigration officers in several steps in a very short time, compared to so many other countries' airports. Shortly after exiting customs, I discovered the big posters of the upcoming Tokyo Olympic games and mascots welcoming visitors. The nation has moved forward. 311 Tohoku disasters are long gone in history. Fukushima has faded away in the nation's conscience.

The long haul flight from Canada to Japan helps me to remember I am entering yet another foreign land. But the transition from Tokyo to Fukushima is always a harder one. This is partly because Tokyo somehow feels much closer to Vancouver, which is on the other side of Pacific Ocean, than to Fukushima, which is just 1 hour and 20 minutes by bullet train.

I stayed with the Otake family at Seibou Christ Church in Inchikawa (I wrote a story of this church during my first visit in March, 2015: to read, click here) last night before starting the journey to Fukushima this morning. Kengo and Tomiko, Shihoko's parents and lay pastors of this church, always demonstrate the finest form of Japanese hospitality whenever I visit them. It is such a home-coming feeling here in Japan after a long flight, and especially before my trip to Fukushima, where I anticipate  feelings of greater emotional distance from Tokyo.

Kengo and Tomiko Otake

Ken and Shihoko flew from Vancouver a few days ahead of me and Midori joined this morning from Yokohama. The four of us drove for three hours to Koriyama where we meet the two other members of our group, who have never been to Fukushima. This year we are trying out a different way of traveling in Fukushima as we welcome a few members of our trip along the way for different lengths of the journey. Stay tuned for the story yet to unfold this week!